Saturday, December 26, 2009

2009 – Day 359.Dec 26 – Striving to Be Like Someone Else

My Journal for Today: I hope you have duly read the two chapters toward which Swindoll has pointed his readers this morning; because in this historical account of the times of Israel just before the establishment of their first human king, we read of how God’s people, over and over again, just couldn’t learn from their own foibles. It was also interesting to see that neither did Samuel learn the parenting lessons we’ve been driving home the last couple of days. … No, just like his former mentor Eli, Samuel’s sons turned out to be bad apples too; and because of this and the discontent of the Hebrew people, especially their desire to be like all the other nations around them, God let Israel have what they wanted.

And we read that God led Samuel to the handsome young man from the House of Benjamin, Saul, who would become Israel’s first king; but even with God, Samuel, the Prophet, warning the people what it would be like to have a human king, the hard-headed people wanted to be just like all the other nations in the region. They wanted a king. And as I read this account again this morning, I was impressed by the parallels to this day in time in which we live. And any reader, who reads this, as we transition into a new year very soon (2010), we are going through a time in our country when God’s elected representatives are pushing through a government take-over of health care in America. And I can see a lot of historical and social parallels with what went on in 1st Samuel 8 – 9.

Today we see the voted will of the people, i.e., our elected officials, moving toward what many other countries are doing in the world; and that is to socialize health care. Countries in Europe and our neighbors to the north, Canada, have done so; and we just seem to be clamoring to do the same thing, not looking at what has happened in these countries. And there are other things going on in our government – unGodly trends – toward which we are moving, like government funded abortion and changing the status of marriage to allow homosexuals to marry, all of which are attempts to do things like other countries; and I can see God allowing them to have their way just to show America that not following God’s way will lead to disaster. It certainly did in Israel, if ones know their history when Saul took over as King. And I also move ahead in history to Paul’s New Testament reminder to the Roman Christians as one reads Romans 1: 18 – 32, which I exhort you to read from this link.

And when you’ve read the passages in 1st Samuel and Romans 1, I hope you’re as impressed as am I to see how we can read what God has written in His Book of Truth, the Bible, and yet mankind will pursue the self-destructive trends which God’s word clearly warns will be our undoing. And I think that my dear grandchildren are unfortunately going to experience the pain which the world is bringing on itself, because as it is said, “The rain, when it falls, will fall on the righteous as well as the unrighteous.”

Sure, we must do all we can, as Samuel tried to do, to fight against evil in our world and to alert our governement to what is truth from God’s word. And we, as Christians, must pray as diligently as possible for God to heal our land (as prayed in 2nd Chronicles 7: 14 -linked). But if the world will not hear and they keep clamoring for and doing evil in the sight of God, His reign will fall and our world will feel His wrath. And may God have mercy on all of us.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, reading these things does not give me good feelings going into the New Year; but I know that You’re in control; and I know You’ll never leave, nor forsake, those who love You and are Your called ones according to Your purpose. Amen